quarantine

[IKeepAngels]

how to set up a quarantine tank for new fish? i have an extra 15 gallon tank. how often and what specific medications should i dose?how often should i do a water change? should i do it the way aquarium coop does it (50% water change daily)?

 

[Colin_T]

A quarantine tank is simply a spare aquarium or container that can house new fish for a month so they can be monitored for diseases. If they develop a disease whilst in quarantine, you treat it then and there and this stops the disease getting into the main display tank. If the fish don't show any signs of disease, yo don't treat them. The only exception to this is deworming the fish. All new fish should be dewormed in quarantine. You use Praziquantel to treat tapeworm and gill flukes, and Levamisole to treat thread/ round worms.

Most people have a spare filter in the main tank and use that in the quarantine tank when they get new fish.
eg: you plan on getting some new fish tomorrow. So today you fill up the quarantine tank with water from the main display tank and some dechlorinated tap water (50/50 mix of tap and tank water). Have a thin layer of sand or gravel in the tank. Add a heater and put the spare filter in the tank. Add a couple of plastic plants and some ornaments for bottom dwellers to hide under.

The next day you go to the shop and get the new fish, bring them home and acclimatise them to the quarantine tank. The fish stay there for a month and there are no problems, they get moved into the display tank.

After the quarantine period, you wash the filter, ornaments, and quarantine tank out. Let the tank, ornaments, gravel, etc dry out and put the filter back in the main tank.

-------------------------
You do water changes on the tank each week just like on a normal tank. If you get ammonia or nitrite readings you do big water changes every day until the ammonia and nitrite levels remain on 0.

 

[Roden]

There’s no reason to use medications if they are healthy, it will just cause unnecessary stress. Keeping medications on hand however can be very useful if a situation does arise.

As Collin said about waterchanges you only need to do it weekly(or however often your tank allow you to do so, I know that some often don’t need to be changed every week). If parameters get bad do the big waterchanges when necessary.

Collin primarily covered how to go about setting up a QT, but I’ll also add a few things that I do. I prefer sponge filters as they are cheap and easy to toss if necessary, just need some airline tubing and a pump and you’ll be set. I do keep them in a cycled tank when not QT’ing which is very beneficial and makes things significantly easier. I also use terricotta pots for hides. They are also cheap and if necessary, easy to toss. The fish can hide in there and feel “safe”, so I highly suggest using them. Getting a nice heater is also worthwhile. The fish will already be stressed in QT so if you can keep the temp stable it’ll be useful. It’s also necessary if they do end up have a heat treatable illness and you need to raise the temp.